When is the Sermon Done?

When is the sermon done? This is a question preachers struggle with quite frequently--not only in crafting the sermon, but in delivering it.

When is the sermon done? This is a question jokingly posed by hearers quite regularly--as if the proclamation of the Gospel is something simply to endure.

When is the sermon done? When God is finished winging his word into the hearts of his people and bringing forth fruit for his Kingdom.

Isaiah 55:11: . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Devotional Books

Each new year I evaluate the devotional books I use as part of morning prayer. I always keep a few and then switch others out. The list below represents the ones I use on an ideal day, in roughly the order I move through them.

For the order of Scripture readings, I use the St. James Daily Devotional Guide for the Christian Year. This guide moves through the New Testament once a year and the Old Testament every two years, with a good balance between reading systematically through books of the Bible and taking into account major feast days such as Easter and Christmas.

Some others I find helpful are:

+ Eugene Peterson's Praying with the Psalms: I love Eugene Peterson's work. Last year I read through Living the Message. Each day there is an invitation to read a Psalm or part of a Psalm and he has brief meditation and a prayer. Often I pair this with the selected Psalm in Reading the Psalms with Luther.

+ I have always enjoyed reading the wisdom of the Desert Fathers. One way to do this, gem by gem, is through Bernard Bangley's By Way of the Desert.

+ Henri Nouwen's Bread for the Journey contains a brief meditation for each day of the year. Nouwen always has perspicuous insights into the "everyday" of living the Christian faith.

+ For a bit meatier fare, I enjoy J.D. Watson's A Hebrew Word for the Day. He also has a companion Greek volume that I read through last year.

I should probably say that it is not everyday that I get through all of these devotional books. At a bare minimum, I pray the Trisagion Prayers and try to read as many of the daily Scripture readings as I can, beginning with the daily appointed Gospel reading.

For shorter snippets of Scripture throughout the day, I subscribe via email to the Moravian Daily Texts. A friend of mine also gave me a copy of Bread for the Day, with a short Scripture reading each day based on the Revised Common Lectionary.

What devotional books / guides do you find most helpful for daily prayer and Scripture reading?

The Future of my Blog?

I have not been posting to this blog as regularly as I would like. Chalk it up to a busy fall, especially on the funeral front.

In any case, I am rethinking its purpose and theme and--on a more fundamental note--whether I will continue it at all.

So what do you say, faithful readers? Feel free to email me directly: pastormusteric [at sign] gmail.com with any suggestions. What have you found most helpful? What would you like to see more of? What is the perfect frequency for posting?

In the off-chance that I get few or not responses, that will help me settle the question as well.